Practice - Bodhi retreat day

Good morning and welcome to the start of our Bodhi Day celebrations, which will be more muted than we expected. Due to circumstances beyond our control. I'm Satya Robyn and I'm also joined in the shrine room by Casper, Keima, Jahmei, and Angela. We've got a cat outside who can't come in because he's too far away. And joining us on Zoom, we have Chris, Paul, and Jay. So warm welcome to Jay. So the practice order has changed since Wednesday, and rather than you just listening to mine and Caspar's voice, we will also have another voice in the shrine room. Unless anybody's willing to spontaneously offer a Dharma glimpse this morning, um, Jyomay has one written down which he'll read out. But if in the future, if you would like to write a little something down and bring it and read it out or just speak something spontaneously, then just let me know. And that includes people on Zoom, we can put the microphone on and we can hear you. A Dharma glimpse is just a little experience from everyday life that kind of gives you a little learning or a little glimpse of the Dharma, basically. And I'd also like to say at this point that this is in no way compulsory. And if you don't produce Dharma glimpses, you will still always be welcome to practice with with us because I've got a fancy of people like, when's it going to be my turn? It's not, it's not meant to be a punishment. It's meant to be a little, a little offering. So I will hand over to Jāme who will read the Dharma glimpse this morning.

So this is from Bright Dawn Dharma Glimpses. It's called, the glimpse is called Looking for the Dharma, a glimpse of something by Roger Sayo-Cochran. In my early 30s, I had an experience that's still transcendent to me. I was riding alone on a motorcycle through a rainforest where the local people were burning underbrush in preparation for planting crops. The smoke was dense and I could barely see the road under my feet and only vaguely saw the forest. It was as if I was traveling in a time and place not seen before. There was a sense of wonder, awe, and majesty. But this experience has only rarely happened in the years since. I came to think of enlightenment as a rare experience, but Bright Dawn has encouraged me to see enlightenment as daily life and to rethink my relationship to daily life, enlightenment, and Buddhism. All of this has begun to make sense for me in the past 2 months when I've begun to see how being more compassionate in my daily life might actually be a gate to nirvana in daily life. So my Dharma glimpse is pretty mundane. It is here today in this act of tidying up, a Dharma glimpse, because I'm paying serious attention in this moment. I'm attempting to let go of my attachment to how things ought to be and see things just as they are at this moment.

Thank you, Jamé.

So we'll now move into a period of silence. As we sit in the silence, maybe just— my invitation for today is to just be aware of the sounds around you. Just allow the sounds to be there. I've heard an instruction before about, rather than identifying individual sounds or getting too caught up in them, just imagine it like an orchestra. Imagine the sounds around you as coming from one body and just allow them to float through you. When your attention drifts away, just bring it back gently to listening. After a while, we will do some chanting together, and the word that we'll use for chanting is Amitābha. Amitābha is the Buddha that we, we take refuge in here alongside many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas. And Amitābha is the Buddha of infinite light. So do join in the chanting. Unfortunately, if you're on Zoom, we just have to imagine your voices, but hopefully you can hear our voices here. And then we'll have another period of silence. Namo Amitabha.

Ani ta ba.

Ani ta ba.

Ani ta ba. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Ame taba. Ame taba. Ame taba. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabha. Amitabh. Amitabh. Amitabh.

We'll now recite the refuges, the precepts, and the vows together. Please repeat after me. For refuge I go to the Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Buddha.

Namo Buddha.

Namo Buddha.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

For refuge I go to the Dharma.

Namo Dhamma.

Namo Dhamma.

For refuge I go to the Sangha.

For refuge I go to Sangha—

Namo sanghaya! With faith in the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not take life—with faith in the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not steal—with faith in the Three Jewels—I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct; I pray that I may not fall into sexual misconduct. With faith in the Three Jewels— with faith in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may avoid wrong speech.

I pray that I may avoid wrong speech.

With faith in the Three Jewels— with faith in the Three Jewels— I pray that I may avoid intoxication. I pray that I may avoid intoxication. No blame! Be kind! Love everything! Love everything.

Innumerable are sentient beings, we vow to save them all. Inexhaustible are deluded passions, we vow to transform them all. Immeasurable are the Dharma teachings, We vow to master them all.

Infinite is the Buddha's way.

We vow to perfect complete. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

I chose the Dharma Glimpse this morning because I'm really appreciating this idea of finding Dharma in our very ordinary everyday lives. One of the pitfalls of spiritual practice, certainly in my own experience, is getting caught up in the idea that we're heading towards something special, that we work really hard, we do our meditation, we do our chanting, we try and follow the precepts, and that we're heading towards this experience, this event of enlightenment, which has kind of flashing lights and visions and intense feeling. And one of the things I've really appreciated about Pure Land Buddhism is the idea that that we're so caught in our own— we're so caught up in ourselves that attaining enlightenment is a little bit beyond most of us. And so don't worry about it, because if we take refuge in Amida, if we take refuge in something that is is wiser and more compassionate than we are, then we can be assured of some eventual blossoming, some eventual kind of— I can't think of the word, but when you— when you— well, yes, some, some kind of evolving towards some state of selflessness. But in the meantime, here on planet Earth, we just acknowledge that we are a mix, that we are a mix of parts that are greedy, parts that are jealous, parts that are kind of boring. Parts that are angry. All of these different bits of us are— we carry that around. We carry that around all the time. And so rather than waiting for some future amazing event, we just think, okay, what, what's here right now? What do I have to practice with? Oh, I probably shouldn't have sent that text to my friend, let me apologize. Or, oh, the washing up really needs doing. Oh, I actually need to rest right now. For me, the proof of the pudding with Buddhism or any spiritual practice is, does it actually make a difference to our everyday lives? And for me, it's really easy for me to forget about the Dharma. I often say it's one of the reasons why we have so many Buddhas in the temple, because at least I get to see them and they jog my mind. A little bit. So I guess I'm speaking up in favor of the little everyday glimpses that we get of the Dharma, the little everyday examples of taking refuge in the Sangha, as we're doing this morning here on Bodhidharma Bodhi Day celebration. The little glimpses we get of the Buddha and trying to stitch as many of those as we can into our ordinary, flawed life. So I'm thinking as I speak about the Buddha seeing the morning star and touching the earth that morning of his enlightenment. And I'm also thinking about the next decades when he, he just lived quite an ordinary life and responded to whoever came in front of him with fresh wisdom, and who took rests when he needed to, and who got things wrong. It was Ananda who persuaded him to let women into the sangha. Just ordinary in many ways. So I was just thinking, what do we do next? Next we will get up and prostrate to the Buddha, and the words are Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which mean I take refuge in Amida Buddha. And there's a tune. It's a bit difficult to pick the tune up and do the actions at the same time, so just follow along the best you can. Namomi Dibi.

You're leaking. You can't sit still. Namoha mi tabu! Namoha mi tabu! Namoha mi tabu! Namoha mi— —tabu! Namoha mi na?

Now recite the closing verse together. Do unmute if you would like to join us. Namami taberu. I'm just gonna stop the recording.